ABSTRACT
Since the 1970s, many economies increasingly rely on ‘importing’ water embedded in food imports, a process referred to here as virtual-water ‘imports’. In water-scarce countries, virtual-water ‘imports’ are used to protect the economy’s own water which would otherwise be consumed in food production to meet the growing population and economy food needs, or to support the population’s food needs beyond that sustainable by internal water resources. This process is referred to here as virtual-water decoupling. This paper examines the role of virtual-water decoupling to achieve a version of food–water security for water-scarce societies, with a particular focus on Egyptian virtual-water decoupling policy during the period 1962–2013.
